


To the Top of the World

by cygnari



Series: Stories of Lance and Steven Stone [2]
Category: Pocket Monsters | Pokemon - All Media Types
Genre: Fluff, M/M, Mountaineering, Mythology - Freeform, Shinou-chihou | Sinnoh Region (Pokemon)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-03-01
Updated: 2021-03-01
Packaged: 2021-03-13 07:15:49
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,244
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29772594
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/cygnari/pseuds/cygnari
Summary: Lance and Steven climb a mountain
Relationships: Tsuwabuki Daigo | Steven Stone/Wataru | Lance
Series: Stories of Lance and Steven Stone [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2187342
Kudos: 7





	To the Top of the World

“This is it right?” Lance asked, staring into the darkness before them. 

“Yep, let’s go,” Steven said, already starting to enter the monstrous cavern before them. 

“Wait, we should check our supplies one last time before we enter. Pokemon, potions, berries, hiking gear, mining equipment….. Ok! It looks like we have everything. Steven, are you--? Steven? Steven! Wait for me!” Lance shouted, chasing after Steven who had already disappeared into the murkiness. Well, this was to be expected. Steven would always stride confidently forwards, leaving Lance to chase after him as he checked, double checked, and triple checked their preparations for whatever adventure they were on. 

Currently, the pair had just entered Mt Coronet from Route 208, heading west from Hearthome City where they had spent a week flitting around without care. Lance did think that Steven looked rather dashing in the tuxedo he had won in his contest success, but clearly such attire was not suitable for climbing mountains. However, contests did get boring, especially for Lance, who had less experience with the more delicate aspects of being a pokemon coordinator. Thus, in a moment of passion, the pair decided that climbing Mt Coronet would be a good idea, especially with the number of Sinnoh myths that centered on the mountain. The pair had visited Eterna City and Celestic Town and they were firmly of the idea that the top of Mt Coronet was not a standard peak. Additionally, Steven had heard rumors that one could find schalstein in the mountain, and of course Steven was a sucker for rare minerals, and Lance had heard rumors that one could find Feebas in the lakes found in the various caverns, and while Milotic was not a dragon type, it was close enough, being roughly as dragon like as Gyarados was. 

“Lance, do you want to try fishing here? This lake looks as fine as any other I guess,” Steven remarked, having just set foot into this first cave, “While you fish I can start looking at this rocks.”

“Sure sure. Here’s a pickax,” Lance said, unzipping his backpack, “And here’s a hammer and chisel. Let’s see, ah, here’s the fishing rod, and here’s some bait. Now to cast,” he said, as the lure gently plopped, breaking the stillness of the water, “And now I wait.” 

“How many rock smashes does that make?” Steven inquired, quickly glancing over the shards of rock to see if there was anything interesting about. 

“17?” Lance replied, “Assuming I didn’t lose count.” 

“How long have we been in here anyways? Should we think about setting up camp somewhere soon?” Steven said, skipping ahead and checking his PokeNav. 

“Sure, let’s find a good secluded spot,” Lance said, trailing close behind, “We don’t want to get attacked by wild Zubat at night now, would we? Hmmmm, I wonder where these stairs go... Oh! This dead end looks quite nice. Shall we?”

“We shall,” Steven replied, already starting to unpack their tent and sleeping bags. “Give me a hand?” he asked. 

“Yeah, just a second,” Lance said, fumbling around, “Let me pack up this fishing gear first. Perhaps I’ll have better luck with Feebas tomorrow, but honestly, I’m feeling a bit done with fishing.”

“How many pokemon did you fish up?” Steven chirped. 

“426,” Lance glowered. 

“How many feebas?” Steven asked cheekily, fully knowing the answer. 

“None,” Lance responded, despondently. 

“And you’re sure that there are feebas here?” Steven asked, with a slight smirk. 

“Reasonably,” Lance muttered, before suddenly changing the subject, “Did you find any schalstein?” 

“Ummmmm,” Steven hesitated. 

“And how many rocks did you analyze?” Lance calmly continued. 

“A lot….” Steven answered, trailing off.

“And are you sure that you can find schalstein here?” Lance said, giving Steven no time to interject. 

“Ugh you’re the worst,” Steven muttered under his breath.

“And you know you love me,” Lance cheekily replied, before leaning in and giving Steven a quick peck on the cheek. “Let’s get back to these tents, shall we? And better luck to both of us tomorrow.” 

\----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

“Oh it looks like that’s the entrance to outside. Are you prepared? Do you have your snow clothes on?” Steven asked. 

“Yep, all ready. I really hope it isn’t snowing, that would suck. Oh, and yep, it’s hailing,” Lance said, stepping out into the cold alpine hailstorm, “Shame that none of my dragons are remotely useful in this weather.” 

“Worry not, for I, the valiant and honorable Steven Stone, shall protect you, Lance, my fair gentleman, with my army of steel type pokemon,” Steven said with a wide sweep of his arms. “Come on now, are you sure you don’t need another coat?” 

“For the last time, I’m not cold,” Lance muttered, his cheeks already looking a bit pale, “Let’s just get through this snow as fast as we can so we can get back in a cave.” 

“~Ok~,” Steven sang, already skipping ahead as Lance struggled behind him, not accustomed to snow and already starting to sink into it. “Oh, do you need some help?” Steven said, looking back at Lance who was already knee deep, “Metagross, perhaps you could carry Lance until we get back inside?” Steven said, releasing Metagross from its pokeball. Metagross quickly complied, floating over to Lance’s location and delicately (well, as delicately as a Metagross could) pulling Lance out of the snow, before lifting Lance on to its body and floating back to where Steven was. 

“I guess this is fine,” Lance said, still steadfastly pretending that nothing was wrong.

“Oh would you like at that. Lance, which cavern do you think is the correct way to go?” Steven said, as a rock climb brought them to the top of a cliff and there were two caverns, one on either side of them. 

“Left looks good,” Lance said, looking worse for wear as the cold seemed to have infiltrated his body on a spiritual level, “They’re probably connected inside or --” 

“Let’s go!” Steven said, cutting off Lance and already making a beeline for the left cave. “Of my, what is this?! A waterfall! Lance, we must climb it. Do you see that cavern at the top? This is significant!” Steven rambled as they once again entered the innards of the mountain. 

“Sure, just give me a moment,” Lance said as the life visibly re-entered him. “Dragonite, could you give us a lift up?” Lance said, calling upon Dragonite who quickly allowed Lance to board while Steven stared at them petulantly. 

“That’s cheating. You can fly, but I’m doing this the proper way,” he said, “I’ll just pop outside and back in through the other cavern, that seems to have a surf access point. Wait for me?” 

“You know it. Let’s go, Dragonite,” Lance said as Dragonite took off carefully, allowing Lance some time to make sure that his head was safe from other cavern roof hazards, before gently flying over to the platform at the top of the waterfall. “Thanks for the lift, buddy,” Lance said, recalling Dragonite in a flash of red before taking out his fishing rod. “Will this be my 146th attempt today?” he muttered under his breath, casting his rod and waiting for Steven. 

As Lance was enjoying the relative warmth and comfort of the cave, Steven once again found himself trudging through the snow. “Why am I so morally upright and honest?” he asked himself rhetorically, comforting himself as he dealt with snow, cliffs, and wild pokemon attacks. Eventually, he found himself entering the right cavern, walking down towards the subterranean lake, and surfing towards the waterfall before climbing it and finding Lance waiting there, napping. “Psst psst Lance?” Steven whispered gently. 

“Mmrphprhp?” was the sound that came from Lance, as he groggily opened his eyes, and seeing Steven, all that he said was “Oh.” 

“Good morning my prince. Napping is not an issue, but surely you would prefer to nap on me instead of those rocks?” Steven asked, seeing that Lance was in fact napping against some very hard rocks. 

“Mmrph. Mrph. Ugh, ok. Hello. I have something for you,” Lance said, fumbling around in his pockets, not entirely awake, before pulling out a small rock, “Here. Schalstein.” 

“What. Where. How. You????? No,” Steven righteously declared, still basking in his moral virtue.

“Yeah. I caught a Feebas on my first fishing attempt, so I decided to look around a bit and having heard you ramble on and on about schalstein, I figured that I would be able to identify it, and lo and behold, there it was. Do you like it?” Lance asked in a bashful manner, nervous about a potential misidentification. 

“What do you mean do I like it? Lance this is amazing. I love it. Lance, why are you so amazing?” Steven said, as he pulled Lance into a tight hug. 

“Um. I’m glad you like it,” Lance muttered, cheeks bright red, “Umm, so did you want to check out this cave?” 

“Oh yes!” Steven said, quickly realizing that Lance was supporting both of their body weights and untangling himself, “I hope this cave has something exciting! Metagross, could you use flash?” Steven asked, finding this small cavern to be completely dark. 

“Wow,” was all that Lance could say. 

“Wow,” Steven repeated. 

“Did Professor Carolina mention anything about this?” 

“No.”

“Did she mention anything about what we should do in these circumstances?” 

“No.” 

“Do you have any thoughts about what we should do in these circumstances?” 

“Hmmmm. Well, we should document this as well as we can. You have a camera right?” 

“Yeah, I’ll get to taking pictures. You can start packing up artifacts in the areas that I’ve photographed?” 

“Sounds good. Let’s get to it,” Steven declared resolutely, as they slowly took stock of the cave they found themselves in. The walls were richly decorated with cave paintings, and in the middle of the cave they saw two gleaming orbs and a flat table with a stone tablet on it. The cave paintings seemed to be in some sort of chronological order, depicting a number of mythical beings at what appeared to be the creation of the universe. They could make out an egg, a single being coming out of that egg, that single being forming three more beings, another egg it seemed, and what looked like Earth. The rest was far too obscure and they would need Professor Cynthia’s guidance regarding it. After Lance had finished documenting, Steven retrieved the two orbs, one which shined like a diamond and one which gleamed like a pearl, and the tablet, before storing them in his backpack. “Shall we continue climbing?” Steven asked. 

“Yes, let’s.” 

\----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

“We should be reaching the top soon right?” Steven asked, looking visibly worn out from the caves, snow, and wild pokemon encounters. 

“Yes, based on the altitude readings my PokeNav is giving, we should be there soon,” Lance replied, having taken up the lead in place of Steven, whose earlier enthusiasm had noticeably flagged. “Ah, this looks like it should be the last cave exit. Come on,” Lance said, with a renewed energy in his step. 

“Yay!” Steven said, visibly unwilting and straightening up, as they entered the light for the last time. 

“Wow,” Lance said, “There’s no snow. I guess we’re above the clouds.” 

“Lance! That’s your first response?” Steven gasped, reaching to smack Lance for his poor and nonsensical reaction. 

“Well,” Lance said, doding Steven’s hand, before hugging him from behind and rotating them, “Let’s take a moment to soak in the view.”

And truly, the view was glorious. From the peak, they could see the entirety of Sinnoh, from Canalave City in the west of the region, to Snowpoint in the North, the Space Time Towers in Alamos Town, the elevated walkways of Sunyshore, to Hearthome where they had just come from, to the rocky outcroppings of Veilstone, to the distant fires of Mt Stark, and more. They could see the 3 lakes of Sinnoh, along with a 4th they hadn’t previously known about, Newmoon and Fullmoon Islands side by side, the perpetual rains of the Great Marsh, and the bustling lights of Jubilife. This was the top of Sinnoh. 

“Lance?”

“Yes, Steven?”

“Shall we take a look at those ruins?”

“Sure.” 

“Do you think this is the Spear Pillar that Professor Carolina mentioned?” 

“Well, these ruins certainly aren’t natural. Come on, let’s take a look,” Lance said, walking hand-in-hand with Steven. 

“These columns are massive. Hmmm, do you think these columns were supporting anything? We say a few dolmens which are distinctly supported by columns of this sort. Perhaps these were simply free-standing? These groves are artfully done. They’re surprisingly uniform given the wear and tear they must have suffered in these mountain top winds. Hmmm, is this entire thing made out of schalstein? The color is not too far off, and this entire structure is certainly of a different composition than the rest of the mountain. It was almost certainly built by humans, what with that looming overhang we see towards the back, and it almost looks like that overhang cannot be self-supporting….” Steven rambled, not giving Lance a chance to speak. 

“Steven?” Lance said, even as he continued smiling softly at Steven’s rambles. 

“Yes Lance?”

“Does it feel like somehow, space is distorting?” 

“What,” Steven said, stopping dead in his tracks, finally noticing his surroundings. 

“Yes, it feels like space is distorting. Mt Coronet is receding quite far behind us, you see?” Lance said, pointing behind them. 

“Lance? What’s going on?” Steven asked, increasingly unnerved. 

“And have you noticed that there is a glow coming from your backpack?” Lance asked, motioning towards the glow coming from Steven’s backpack, “And that the glow is blue and pink, like the two gems we found?” 

“Lance. I’m scared. Why are they glowing?” Steven said, sweating, “Can you get them out?” 

“Sure, it also seems like time has slowed down,” Lance said, glancing down at his PokeNav, before helping retrieve the two glowing orbs. 

“Lance, they shouldn’t be glowing,” Steven said, looking at the two glowing orbs Lance held, even as he continued to walk forwards, not entirely of his own will, towards the strange glowing triangle. 

“It seems that the columns have rearranged themselves,” Lance said, noting that they were now walking in an infinite dark expanse, as Sinnoh receded infinitely far into the distance and the columns aligned, seemingly floating. 

“What’s going on. Ummmm, this isn’t normal,” Steven said, stammering. 

“Yes, they seem to be lighting our way forwards. I wonder what that subtle glow in the distance could be. Perhaps it comes from the distortionary aspects that we are currently experiencing?” 

“I don’t want to die,” Steven replied, as the two finally reached the glowing triangle. As they were now standing on top of it, they could see that the glowing triangle was filled with glowing text, written in some strange script, seemingly reminiscent of the text on the stone tablet that they had retrieved with the two orbs. Meanwhile, the two orbs had floated out of Lance’s hands and were now shining with an indescribable brilliance, one on each side of the pair, as beams of blue and pink light seemed to reach out from them and into the infinite unknown. 

“Steven?”

“Yes, Lance?”

“Do you think we should be scared?”

“That’s what I’ve been saying! None of this is normal. Rocks don’t start mysteriously glowing, space and time do not randomly distort like this, and columns can’t float!” Steven yelled, releasing his pent up nervousness, “Lance, I’m terrified! Can we run? We should run!” 

“Well, there seem to be two forms getting closer,” Lance noted, “Perhaps they’re being drawn in by the orbs?” 

“That seems to be a reasonable assumption, now can we leave?” Steven asked, as the beams of light grew brighter and thicker and the forms at the ends grew nearer, “Lance, do you feel that sinister chill?” 

“Yes, it seems to be coming from this blacker than black hole on the third side of the triangle. Well, it seems that we may have triggered some sort of ritual. This may be dangerous.” 

“Lance, protect me!” Steven cried out, trying to hide behind Lance but unable to as the strange events were happening on all sides of them, even as the unknown creatures of immeasurable power grew closer, “Hmmmm, it seems that reality is becoming unstable.” 

“Yes, it does seem so,” Lance said, paying little attention to Steven’s terrified pleas, as the two beings connected to the orbs by beams of light seemed to land on a non-existent surface, and the third appeared out of an inky portal. Lance greeted them, “We come in peace.” Unfortunately, the legendary trio had already started glowing as they gathered energy, and in a split second, three attacks had been launched. 

Space was torn asunder. Time was stopped, before being violently thrown forwards. Bits and pieces of the dark expanse were gone, replaced with lightless voids. 

“Do you think that we can escape, Steven?” Lance asked. Steven had already taken off, even as Lance was speaking. The three beings had launched into a violent battle, flying around and launching powerful blasts of energy at each. Every time two blasts collided, reality itself seemed to shudder. 

“Let’s run! Come on! There’s no waiting!” Steven shouted, fleeing in terror at the eldritch horrors that had appeared. 

“I agree. Give me a second, or whatever passes for a second here,” Lance said, deftly navigating violent blasts and reality-quakes, to grab the two orbs that had stopped glowing, “Let’s go.” The pair ran back, guided by the floating columns that were being destroyed without a thought, as the expanse receded behind them, and the comforting astureity of the Spear Pillar emerged before them. In what seemed like an infinity but appeared to have only been an instant, judging by the movement of the sun in the sky, the pair was back on Mt Coronet. 

“Well that was something. A life-threatening something, even,” Lance evenly remarked.

“Yes, it certainly was. Let’s take a brief break? So that I can check that I’m alive?” Steven asked, out of breath from the run. 

“I would not be opposed, Lance said, sitting down by some columns that were thankfully attached to the ground and not glowing. “Wait, hmmm,” Lance said, rummaging through his backpack, “Where did I put them?” 

“Are you looking for something?” 

“Yes, give me a moment, ugh, did I really lose them?” Lance muttered unhappily. 

“What did you lose?” Steven inquired. 

“Well,” Lance stammered out, suddenly blushing quite brightly, “I, ummm, I, uhh, was, umm, Iwasgoingtopropose.”

Steven stared at Lance blankly, “What did you say?” 

“I was going to propose,” Lance forced out. 

“Oh,” was all Steven said, before blushing equally brightly, and suddenly finding himself unable to look Lance in the eye. 

“So, um, what do you say? Will you marry me?” Lance hesitated. 

“Yes! Yes, of course,” Steven said quickly, before slowing down, “It’s just that, well, I was also going to propose.”

“Oh.” 

“Oh indeed.”

Lance hesitated, “Ummm, what is the proper course of action now?” 

“Well, let’s get down this mountain, shall we?” Steven said, seemingly having recovered, “Can I kiss you?” 

“Yes,” Lance answered, once again a bright red, as Steven leaned in, for a quick brush of their lips. “Steven?” Lance asked evenly. 

“Yes?” 

“That was electric. Now let’s get off this mountain. We still have a lifetime to share together. Hopefully without any more dimensional mishaps” 

Fin

**Author's Note:**

> How to write kiss? Help very hard.


End file.
